Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought - From Its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins to Existentialism. Touchstone Books | Amazon page, 1968.  Page 483 says, "A great gap between the churches and the labor movements in Europe developed. The churches were the representation of the ideologies which kept the ruling classes in power over against the working masses. This was the tragic situation. It is a great thing that in America this tragedy has happened on a much smaller scale. But in Europe it has led to the radical antireligious and anti-Christian attitudes of all labor movements, not only of the communists but also of the social democrats. It was not the 'bad atheists' --as propagandists call them -- who were responsible for this; it was the fact that the European churches, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Episcopalian, were without social sensitivity and direction. They were directed toward their own actualization; they were directed toward liturgical or dogmatic efforts and refinements, but the social problem was left to divine providence."

Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (On Human Work). Vatican website, 1981.

Darren Cushman Wood, Blue Collar Jesus: How Christianity Supports Workers' Rights. Seven Locks Press | Amazon page, Feb 15, 2005)

Marco G. Prouty, Cesar Chavez, the Catholic Bishops, and the Farmworkers' Struggle for Social Justice. University of Arizona Press | Amazon page, Sep 15, 2006.  

Medway Village Church, Human Worth and Capitalism: Market Basket, Corporations, and the Local Community. Medway Village Church, Sep 29, 2014.

Rebecca Onion, Rules of Business Ethics for Early 19th Century Christian Merchants. Slate, Apr 29, 2015.

David Bentley Hart, What Lies Beyond Capitalism? A Christian Exploration. Plough, Aug 12, 2019.  Hart is notable for the way he centers people and labor: “This form of commerce largely destroyed the contractual power of free skilled labor, killed off the artisanal guilds, and introduced instead a mass wage system that reduced labor to a negotiable commodity. In this way, it created a market for the exploitation of cheap and desperate laborers…”

Matthew Franklin Cooper, Ideological History: The Fourth International Take on 1619. The Heavy Anglo-Orthodox Weblog, Dec 5, 2019.  Cooper makes the very important Christian point: “In Europe itself, the two institutions – the slavery of Antiquity, and the chattel slavery of the Age of Exploration – were separated by a good half millennium of gradual abolition and humane developments in law, like those undertaken by Adamnán of Iona in the British Isles and by Eike von Repgow on the Continent. This gradual abolition happened in large part because of the building reliance of the agrarian œconomies of the late-antique barbarian kingdoms on arable land and its produce rather than on labour. This œconomic structure, which was still largely in place on the continent during the capitalist revolution, was the source of a great deal of the early resistance to the new institution of modern chattel slavery, and made up a significant element of the abolition movement going forward. This is something I have laid great stress on over the course of my writing on this blog. The old feudal resistance to the new money-based, urban and mercantile œconomy provided an early basis for the proletarian resistance that was as yet in its germinal stage.” 

Matt Bernico, Wage Against the Machine. Sojourners, May 17, 2021.  Reflects on labor shortages, fair wages, and biblical commands to pay fair wages.

Evangelical Labor Institute (website) has very good articles, including Dawson Vosburg, Is Capitalism Christian? Evangelical Labor Institute, Jan 25, 2021. See also Dawson Vosburg, What Is Economic Egalitarianism? Evangelical Labor Institute, Sep 15, 2020. See also Patrick Bourckel, The New Testament and Economic Equality. Evangelical Labor Institute, Oct 28, 2020.

C.M. Lewis, U.S. Labor Bibliography.  An outstanding reading list.  “Labor history and the study of labor, while less popular than during the movement’s heyday from 1955 – 1980, enjoys a remarkable breadth of work covering general surveys, institutional histories, the study of working class communities, and other specialized studies. Labor Studies programs – particularly ones like the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, the UC Berkeley Labor Center, the Penn State School of Labor and Employment Relations and Center for Global Workers’ Rights, the UMass Labor Center, and the Cornell School of Labor and Industrial Relations – continue to produce high quality research into the world of work and organized labor.  This bibliography is primarily focused on the labor movement’s history in the United States. It aims to provide both a general list of high quality work as well as a focused starting point for introduction to both the history of the movement, and more contemporary works addressing the movement’s more recent history and its present and future. The bibliography will start with a brief sample “survey” list, before transitioning into a more general bibliography.”

Free2Work (website) on labor practices behind various products

The State of Working America (website)

Economic Policy Institute (website)

Wikipedia, Child Labor Reform (Wikipedia article)

Wikipedia, United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (Wikipedia article) an intriguing example of a successful labor union

Global Slavery Index (website)

Steven Greenhouse, Labor Board Stirs Up a Storm. New York Times, Feb 5, 1984.  Re: the Reagan administration tilted the NLRB towards a pro-management position, weakening labor unions and ultimately depressing wages.

Wikipedia, Matewan (Wikipedia article) The 1987 movie about the coal miners’ strike in 1920 in Matewan, West Virginia about black, white, and immigrant miners uniting.

Arthur Schlesinger, A Question of Power. The American Prospect, Dec 19, 2001.  good political history of Progressivism and Populism as urban and rural

David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, The Struggle over Employee Benefits: The Role of Labor in Influencing Modern Health Policy. (Milbank Quarterly, Mar 2003.  means that striking workers can and do lose their health benefits and even pensions (like the GM worker strike); means that unions can be pressured to accept less comprehensive health plans (see this); means that union leaders and benefits coordinators make commission money from selling insurance to union members (see this); and why union-funded Senate Democrat Sherrod Brown. D-OH) opposes Medicaid for All (see this), even though he is otherwise progressive.

Brendan Koerner, Why Do We Get Labor Day Off? Slate, Sep 2, 2004.  President Glover Cleveland wanted to disassociate U.S. labor movements with the International Workers’ Day on May 1.

John Carney and Vincent Fernando, French: The Most Productive People in the World. Business Insider, Aug 20, 2009.

David Keys, Revealed: Industrial Revolution Was Powered by Child Slaves. Independent, Aug 1, 2010.  labor laws in the 1800’s addressed child labor

Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, Partners in Iniquity. NY Times, Apr 2, 2011.  About the American North and South on slavery, which influenced the course of American labor law.

John de Graaf, When America Came 'This Close' to Establishing a 30-Hour Workweek.  AlterNet, Apr 2, 2013.  Labor unions almost succeeded in 1933.

Robert Forrant, The Real Bread and Roses Strike Story Missing from Textbooks. Zinn Educational Project, 2013.  “The 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, Mass., was one of the most significant struggles in U.S. labor history due to its level of organization and collaboration across ethnic and gender lines. Thousands of largely female workers engaged in a lengthy, well-organized, and successful walkout, standing firm against an entrenched group of mill owners and their hundreds of militia and police.” A great summary; helpful links.

CrashCourse, The Progressive Era: Crash Course US History #27. CrashCourse, Aug 29, 2013.

David Madland and Keith Miller, Middle Classes are Stronger in States with Greater Union Membership. American Progress, Sep 20, 2013.

Sally Kohn, Why Labor Day Was a Political Move. CNN, Sep 1, 2014.  President Glover Cleveland wanted to disassociate U.S. labor movements with the International Workers’ Day on May 1.

Jeff Guilford, Society in the Antebellum South. RTHS_JeffGuilford, Feb 19, 2015. An excellent 12 minute video.

Sabina Dewan, Unions Are Key to Tackling Inequality, Says Top Global Financial Institution. Huffington Post, Mar 5, 2015.

Steven Greenhouse, How WalMart Persuades Its Workers Not to Unionize. The Atlantic, Jun 8, 2015.

Carrie Sheffield, How We Can Reform Unionized Government. Bold, Nov 19, 2015.

Matt Kennard and Claire Provost, Inside the Corporate Utopias Where Capitalism Rules and Labor Laws Don't Apply. In These Times, Jul 25, 2016.

Andrew Prokop, 23 Maps That Explain How Democrats Went From the Party of Racism to the Party of Obama. Vox, Jul 29, 2016.  Note the role of labor in the New Deal and the anti-unionism in the South.

Michael Wasser, Unions Could Make a Comeback - If We Help Them. Washington Post, Aug 3, 2016.

Hunter Blair, Trump's Plan for the Economy Does Little to Help Working People. Economic Policy Institute, Aug 9, 2016.

Jake Rosenfeld, Patrick Denice, and Jennifer Laird, Union Decline Lowers Wages of Non-Union Workers:  The Overlooked Reason Why Wages Are Stuck and Inequality is Growing. Economic Policy Institute, Aug 30, 2016.

Maurice Weeks and Marilyn Sneiderman, Why Labor and the Movement for Racial Justice Should Work Together. In These Times, Sep 2, 2016.

John Nichols, Donald Trump Is the Anti–Labor Day Candidate: Running Against Fair Wages, Worker Rights, and Unions. The Nation, Sep 4, 2016.

Economic Policy Institute, “The State of Working America, 12th Edition” Finds That Policy-Driven Inequality Has Undercut Low and Middle-Income Workers for Past Three Decades. Economic Policy Institute, Sep 2016.

Valerie Wilson, Black Workers' Wages Have Been Harmed By Both Widening Racial Wage Gaps and the Widening Productivity-Pay Gap. Economic Policy Institute, October 25, 2016.

Kenneth Dickerman, 20 Haunting Portraits of Child Laborers in the 1900's. Washington Post, Oct 31, 2016.

Dan Berger, Rattling the Cages. Jacobin Magazine, Nov 18, 2016.

Luciana Zorzoli, Not One Less. Jacobin Magazine, Nov 19, 2016.

Robert VerBruggen, Trump and the Unions. The American Conservative, Nov 20, 2016.

Mike Ingram, Lessons of the Harvard University Dining Services Strike. World Socialist Web Site, Nov 23, 2016.

Harold Meyerson, Trump and The Crisis of Labor. Talking Union, Nov 24, 2016.  also notes that the former Confederacy originated "right to work" laws because of their low view of labor

Jason Schulman, Where Is Our Labor Party? Jacobin Magazine, Dec 2016.  why there is not a labor party in the US

Lee Fang, In Statehouses Won by Republicans, the First Move is to Consolidate Power by Weakening Unions. The Intercept, Jan 7, 2017.

Michael Pierce, The Origins of Right-to-Work:  Vance Muse, Anti-Semitism, and the Maintenance of Jim Crow Labor Relations.  The Labor and Working-Class History Association, Jan 12, 2017.  “The idea for Right-to-Work laws did not originate with Muse. Rather it came from Dallas Morning News editorial writer William Ruggles, who on Labor Day 1941 called for the passage of a United States Constitution amendment prohibiting the closed or union shop. Muse visited Ruggles soon thereafter and secured the writer’s blessing for the Christian American Association’s campaign to outlaw contracts that required employees to belong to unions. Ruggles even suggested to Muse the name for such legislation—Right-to-Work.  Muse had long made a lucrative living lobbying throughout the South on behalf of conservative and corporate interests or, in the words of one of his critics, “playing rich industrialists as suckers.” Over the course of his career, he fought women’s suffrage, worked to defeat the constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor, lobbied for high tariffs, and sought to repeal the eight-hour day law for railroaders. He was also active in the Committee for the Americanization of the Supreme Court, which targeted Justice Felix Frankfurter, a Vienna-born Jewish man, for his votes in labor cases.”  “They call me anti-Jew and anti-[n-word]. Listen we like the [n-word]—in his place … Our [Right-to-Work] amendment helps the [n-word]; it does not discriminate against him. Good [n-word], not those Communist [n-word]. Jews? Why some of my best friends are Jews. Good Jews. -- Christian American Association’s Vance Muse (1945)”. See also Richard D. Kahlenberg and Moshe Z. Marvit, The Ugly Racial History of “Right to Work”.  Dissent Magazine, December 20, 2012.  “Southern conservatives—including “right to work” progenitor and avowed white supremacist Vance Muse—feared that if unions united working-class whites and blacks, they could upend the Jim Crow order.”

Thom Hartmann, Richard Wolff: A Labor Manifesto for the Global Left. The Big Picture RT, May 16, 2017.  See also Noam Chomsky, I Would Vote for Jeremy Corbyn. BBC, May 10, 2017.

Josh Bivens, Lora Engdahl, Elise Gould, Teresa Kroeger, Celine McNicholas, Lawrence Mishel, Zane Mokhiber, Heidi Shierholz, Marni von Wilpert, Valerie Wilson, and Ben Zipperer, How Today’s Unions Help Working People. Economic Policy Institute, Aug 24, 2017.  “Giving workers the power to improve their jobs and unrig the economy” a wealth of stats and policy commentary.

Michael DeSapio, How May Day Went From a Religious Holiday to a Socialist One. Intellectual Takeout, May 1, 2017.

Amy Traub, How So-Called “Right to Work” Laws Aim to Silence Working People.  Demos, Oct 11, 2017.  “In essence, so-called “right to work” laws aim to silence working Americans, which causes their wages and working conditions to deteriorate, making it more difficult to sustain a family. Economists find that in states that have adopted these laws, the typical full-time worker is paid $1,500 a year less than their counterpart in a state that has not undermined workers’ rights.”

Garrett Epps, The Bogus 'Free Speech' Argument Against Unions. The Atlantic, Feb 14, 2018.

Branko Marcetic, The Top Labor Battles in West Virginia History.  Jacobin Magazine, Mar 4, 2018.

P.R. Lockhart, The Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike and MLK's Unfinished Fight for Economic Justice. Vox, Apr 4, 2018.

Ariel Ramchandani, The Overlooked Children Working America’s Tobacco Fields. The Atlantic, Jun 21, 2018.  Children as young as 10 and 11.

Alexia Fernández Campbell, Trump Wants to Fire Federal Employees at Will. A Federal Judge Said He Can’t. Vox, Aug 27, 2018.  Because of unionization of federal employees.

Christopher Ingraham, Politicians Have Caused a Pay 'Collapse' for the Bottom 90% of Workers, Researchers Say. Washington Post, Dec 17, 2018.  "While many economists pin much of the blame for wage stagnation on impersonal market forces, such as free trade and technological change, EPI’s Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz contend that specific policy decisions — including efforts to weaken unions, the decay of the minimum wage and monetary policy that prioritizes low inflation over full employment — are responsible for tilting the balance of power away from workers and toward their employers."

Christopher Ingraham, Companies' Pursuit of High Profits is Making the Rich Richer at Everyone Else’s Expense, According to New Research. Washington Post, Dec 31, 2018.  "In 2016, U.S. companies' pursuit of bigger profits through higher prices transferred three percentage points of national income from the pockets of low-income and middle-class families to the wealthy, according to new research on market concentration and inequality. The study, forthcoming in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, examines how growing corporate power, particularly in industries dominated by shrinking numbers of huge companies, effectively “transfer[s] resources from low-income families to high-income families.”

Steven K. Vogel, Elizabeth Warren Wants to Stop Inequality Before It Starts. New York Times, Jan 3, 2019.  on employee ownership in corporate equity; limitations on executives; etc.

Lois Weiner, Why the LA Teachers Strike Matters. The Intercept, Jan 9, 2019.  "This week's Los Angeles teachers strike starkly poses the question: will the public or privatizers control public education?"

Rachel M. Cohen, Unions See An Opening in the Wake of a Ruling That Was Supposed to Finish Them Off. The Intercept, Feb 12, 2019.

Keri Leigh Merritt, War Happens in Dark Places, Too. Contingent Magazine, Mar 3, 2019. On how poor whites in the South sabotaged the Confederacy because they had to offer their labor for low wages because they had to compete with enslaved black labor.

Kayle Blado, The Answer To Burnout At Work Isn’t “Self-Care”—It’s Unionizing. In These Times, Aug 14, 2019.  “The top three reasons for nonprofit workers quitting are being underpaid, lack of upward mobility and excessive workloads. Joining a union can help address each of these issues”

CNBC, How Amazon Fends Off Unions. CNBC, Aug 22, 2019.

Robert Reich, The Five Biggest Lies Corporate Lies About Unions. Robert Reich, Sep 2, 2019.  (1) “labor unions are bad for workers”; (2) “labor unions hurt the economy”; (3) “labor unions are as powerful as big business”; (4) “most unionized workers are in industries like steel and auto”; (5) “most unionized workers are white, middle-aged workers”

Erin Blakemore, The 1936 Strike That Brought America’s Most Powerful Automaker to its Knees. History, Sep 17, 2019.  “Over 136,000 GM workers participated in a sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan.”

Erin Blakemore, Why the Great Steel Strike of 1919 Was One of Labor’s Biggest Failures. History, Sep 23, 2019.  “Plagued by bad press and fraught with racial and ethnic tensions, the huge steel strike was doomed to fail.”

Asad Haider, Noel Ignatiev Understood White Privilege and White Supremacy—and How to Destroy Them. Slate, Nov 22, 2019.  Labor unity and class politics can overcome the construct of “whiteness” which divides working class people and disempowers them

Monica Torres, We Would Rather Lose Our Jobs To Robots Than Humans, A Study Shows (Huffington Post, Nov 27, 2019.  “The question has a surprising psychological factor for workers now and in the future.”

PBS News Hour, Amazon Doesn't Report Its Warehouse Injury Rates -- But We Have an Inside Look. PBS News Hour, Nov 27, 2019.  Speed-based business model produces worker injuries at two to four times industry standards, operating during a gas leak, lack of transparency about worker injuries and illnesses

Will Evans, Ruthless Quotas at Amazon Are Maiming Employees. The Atlantic, Dec 5, 2019.  “This holiday season, Amazon will move millions of packages at dizzying speed. Internal injury reports suggest all that convenience is coming at the expense of worker safety.”

Chauncey DeVega, Radical Historian Harvey J. Kaye: Only a Progressive President Can Save America. Salon, Jan 23, 2020.  “Truman was not able to avoid the 1946 congressional defeat by the Republicans. That enabled the Republicans to pass the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. That law targeted working people and African-Americans, and in fact was specifically a way of preventing labor from organizing in the South. This meant that the possibilities to mobilize for civil rights were also stymied for many years.” LBJ failed to break the filibuster on labor law reform, and Carter turned away from labor.

NBC News, Child Labor Reform in the Progressive Era.  NBC News, May 2, 2020.  The reason why laws against child labor did not pass until 1938 was because Southern cotton interests and Midwestern iron and steel interests were so invested in child labor and blocked reform.  

Krystal Ball, 65% of Americans Approve Of Labor Unions As Economy Implodes. Rising | The Hill, Sep 8, 2020.

Sharon Lerner, How Trump Gutted OSHA and Workplace Safety Rules. The Intercept, Oct 20, 2020.  “Trump’s attack on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has left workers vulnerable to Covid-19.”

Intercepted, American Mythology: The Presidency of Donald Trump, Part Six: The Looting of the Nation (The Intercept, Oct 21, 2020.  “Trump has served as the Pied Piper for the most radical GOP agenda on the economy, workers, and the poor.” Intercepted, Part Five: Courting Corporate Theocracy. The Intercept, Oct 20, 2020.  “With Trump in power, the GOP is transforming the federal judiciary into a right-wing cult that will wield influence over the lives of millions.”

Charisse Burden-Stelly, Caste Does Not Explain Race.  Boston Review, Dec 15, 2020.  “The celebration of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste reflects the continued priority of elite preferences over the needs and struggles of ordinary people.”

Robin D.G. Kelley, The Freedom Struggle Was a Labor Struggle, Then and Now. Black Agenda Report, Jan 6, 2021.  “Black workers have been at the forefront of the labor movement, especially in the 19th century, when labor organizing took the form of parties and mass organizations rather than guilds and skilled trades unions — Knights of Labor and the Greenback Labor Party, for example.” The origin of the CIO, notes on racial capitalism, and a parallel to farmers in India under Modi’s neoliberal agricultural policies.

Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Boosting Wages for U.S. Workers in the New Economy. Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Jan 14, 2021.

Philip Hammond, Virtue Hoarders: Our Scolding Elites. Spiked, Feb 1, 2021.  “How the professional-managerial class presents its power over the working class as moral superiority.”

Mark Joseph Stern, Biden Ousts All 10 of Trump’s Union Busters From Powerful Labor Panel. Slate, Feb 3, 2021.

Aldon Morris, From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter. Scientific American, Feb 3, 2021.  Not about labor unions per se, but labor union tactics are similar. First, non-violent protests and boycotts anchored in the black church. Then, students, like SNCC. Then, filling jails. Different theories about grassroots work and allies, organization vs. decentralization, opponents and obstacles.

Jonah Goldberg, The Party of Government. Literally. The Dispatch, Feb 26, 2021.  “A core constituency of the Democratic Party, both in terms of voters and donors, is people who work for the government. Members of teachers’ unions regularly constitute around 10 percent of delegates to Democratic Party conventions. There are about 3.5 million public school teachers in America, comprising about 1 percent of the U.S. population. That means teachers’ union members are overrepresented among the activist base of the Democratic Party by a factor of about 1,000 percent. In 2019-2020, according to Open Secrets, of the roughly $52 million that the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association spent on political donations, $130,000 went to Republicans or Republican groups, and the rest went to Democrats or Democratic groups—a ratio of about 400-to-1.”

Mindy Isser, Joe Biden’s Amazon Workers Statement Was a Start. But the PRO Act Is the Litmus Test. Jacobin Magazine, Mar 1, 2021.  “The Protecting the Right to Organize. PRO) Act… The PRO Act is the most sweeping pro-labor legislation in decades. It would effectively end anti-union “right-to-work” laws (currently on the books in twenty-eight states), institute financial penalties on employers that retaliate against workers who organize, prohibit employers’ “captive audience” meetings, require employers to bargain a first contract in good faith, repeal the prohibition on secondary boycotts (an instrument of worker solidarity banned since the late 1940s), and bar employers from permanently replacing strikers. In one fell swoop, the PRO Act would transform the organizing terrain for workers. It would make it far easier for workers to form unions, without employer interference, and for workers to use their collective power to advance their interests. It would be a game-changer in the United States — and that’s why the business community has already come out swinging against it. The US Chamber of Commerce warns that it would “fundamentally alter our nation’s system of labor relations.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Briahna Joy Gray: Billionaire Wealth Explodes In 2020. Rising | The Hill, Apr 7, 2021.  Gray makes excellent points about the process of wealth creation

Krystal Ball, Miners Strike In Existential Battle With Private Equity Backed Coal Company. Rising | The Hill, Apr 26, 2021.  helpful contrast between the power of capital and power of labor

Richard Wolff, Capitalism and Racism. Democracy at Work, Apr 30, 2021.  An 11 minute video; racist structuring of the labor force, capitalism leads to cultural individualism in response

Josh Eidelson and Matt Day, Amazon Work Rules Govern Tweets, Body Odor of Contract Drivers. Bloomberg, May 5, 2021.  “The thousands of people driving those ubiquitous Amazon-branded blue vans aren’t employed by the Seattle leviathan. They work for small, independent businesses with contracts to transport packages for Amazon. But that hasn’t stopped the company from dictating the state of their fingernails—and a whole lot more.”

Dan Witters, 1 in 6 U.S. Workers Stay in Unwanted Job for Health Benefits.  Gallup, May 6, 2021.  

Kristin Toussaint, Worker Pay Went Up Just 1.8% in 2020. CEO Pay Increased Nearly 16%.  Fast Company, Jun 3, 2021. “That means the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay could peak too. In 2019, CEOs earned 320 times more than a company’s typical worker. The full picture of how that ratio will change in 2020 isn’t yet clear, since all the same firms have not yet reported their CEO compensation, but there is evidence it’s rising. In 2019, the firms that reported early for this preliminary report had a CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 276.2-to-1; now, it’s 307.3-to-1. For the firms that retained their same CEO all year, the difference was even greater: 341.6-to-1.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, VA Gov Race Shows How Suburban Libs Destroyed Dem Party. Breaking Points, Jun 10, 2021.  Compares Virginia and Nevada on politics. In VA, suburban people make up the Democratic Party, but in NV, unionized workers do.

Richard Wolff, Forced Labor, US Style. Democracy at Work, Jun 12, 2021.  25 states will let elapse the $300/week of COVID relief which was originally planned to run until Labor Day, 2021

Peter O’Dowd and Stephan Bisaha, Alabama Coal Miners Enter 4th Month On Strike: 'They Lied To Us'. WBUR, Jul 8, 2021.  “Members of The United Mine Workers of America went on strike against Warrior Met Coal Incorporated in April and the two sides are still far from a deal.” See also Kim Kelly, Alabama’s Coal Miners Are Striking for Their Lives. The Nation, Jun 11, 2021.  “Over a thousand miners at Warrior Met Coal have been on strike now for over two months, and the conflict is only heating up.”

Kate Gibson, It Takes 300 Worker Salaries to Equal the Average CEO's Pay, Data Show.  CBS News, Jul 14, 2021.  “The pay gap between CEOs and the typical U.S. worker widened during the pandemic. Leaders of companies listed on the S&P 500-stock index earned an average of $15.5 million in 2020, a raise of more than $700,000 from the previous year, according to the AFL-CIO.  That means S&P 500 chief executives made 299 times what rank-and-file employees earned, up from a ratio of 264-to-1 in 2019, the labor union said in a report released on Wednesday.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Shocking Video Reveals Horrific Treatment Of Electrocuted Frito Lay Worker. Breaking Points, Jul 27, 2021.

David Dayen, Anatomy of an Anti-Union Meeting. The American Prospect, Aug 2, 2021.  “How No Evil Foods, a plant-based meat company, squashed a union drive”

Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra, CEO Pay Has Skyrocketed 1,322% Since 1978.  Economic Policy Institute, Aug 10, 2021.  “From 1978 to 2020, CEO pay based on realized compensation grew by 1,322%, far outstripping S&P stock market growth (817%) and top 0.1% earnings growth (which was 341% between 1978 and 2019, the latest data available). In contrast, compensation of the typical worker grew by just 18.0% from 1978 to 2020.”

Sasha Lilley and Kathryn Olmstead, The Contemporary US Right’s Roots in 1930s Union-Busting. Jacobin Magazine, Aug 20, 2021.  “It’s often argued that modern US conservatism originated in the failed presidential bid of Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964. Historian Kathryn Olmsted suggests, however, that it should be located much earlier, in the intense labor unrest in the California fields of the 1930s. In her book, Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism, Olmsted argues that large growers and other members of the business class saw farmworker organizing and the New Deal’s pro-labor policies as fundamental threats to their power.”

Saagar Enjeti, Oren Cass: Here's What Workers Really Want From Unions. Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Nov 4, 2021.  polls show that workers want unions to exercise influence in the workplace, but not get involved in political causes

John Oliver, Union Busting. Last Week Tonight, Nov 15, 2021.

David Doel, Striking Workers Succeed As John Deere Strike Officially Ends. The Rational National, Nov 18, 2021.  Labor union signs 6 year agreement; Doel compares the three agreements

Stephen Rodrick, Cereal Killers: How 80-Hour Weeks and a Caste System Pushed Kellogg's Workers to Strike. Rolling Stone, Nov 30, 2021.

60 Minutes, Why Are Americans Choosing to Quit Their Jobs in Record Numbers?  60 Minutes, Jan 9, 2022.  This is an important snapshot to see how pandemic pressures affect people’s sense of wanting to work.  Job openings:  4.4% in education; 6.3% in retail, 8.2% in health care, and 8.9% in hospitality.  

Aaron Gordon and Lauren Kaori Gurley, Amazon Paid for a High School Course. Here’s What It Teaches.  Vice, Jan 26, 2022.  “Brainstorm ways you could motivate your employees other than large bonuses and high salaries.”  See also discussion by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Inside Amazon Effort To Brainwash Highschool Children.  Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Jan 27, 2022.  Ball mentions that West Virginia once prohibited teachers from teaching labor history, but I cannot find resources on that.  Ball and Enjeti argue that this is why we do not want corporations taking over the funding of public schools.   

Gravel Institute, “The Most Dangerous Law In My Lifetime”.  Gravel Institute, Jun 16, 2021.  The California Proposition 22 referendum that allowed Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as contractors and not employees, thereby allowing them to underpay them.

Keri Leigh Merritt, The South’s Radical Labor History. The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow, Sep 5, 2021. An excellent 30 minute video. Merritt is a first class historian and covers the history from Reconstruction, touching on poor black, poor white, and elite white dynamics.

Chris Hedges, America's Class War: Organized Labor Is the Best Tool to Push Back Against the Rich.  Common Dreams, Jan 19, 2022.  See interview by Julianna Forlana, Chris Hedges on State Of Class War, Real War & Race War.  ACT.TV, Jan 28, 2022.

Rani Molla, Remote Work Isn’t the Problem. Work Is. Vox, Feb 1, 2022.  Interesting stats about remote workers experiencing more satisfaction and belonging than in-office workers.

China Insights, Australia Considers Replacing China with the Indian Market/Takes a Hard Line to CCP's Provocations.  China Insights, Feb 24, 2022.  Raises questions about the legal protections around labor that people in India have.

James Li and Spencer Synder, Corporate Media Ignores Biggest Theft of All Time.  51-49 with James Li, Mar 24, 2022.  US wages stolen from workers exceeds $15 billion per year.  Snyder surveys media coverage of this issue.  Compare this to media coverage of theft, especially on the right.  James Li, How to Steal $15 Billion a Year.  Spencer Snyder, Mar 24, 2022.

Jeff Schuhrke, Capping Off a Year of Labor Action at Amazon, Warehouse Workers Walk Off the Job in Illinois.  In These Times, Dec 22, 2021.  “For the first time, Amazon is experiencing a multi-site U.S. work stoppage. It comes at the end of a year marked by union organizing and labor militancy at the retail giant.”

Huileng Tan, Juliana Kaplan, and Sindhu Sundar, More Than 50 Apple Employees Have Reportedly Walked Off the Job on Christmas Eve and Urged Customers to Boycott the iPhone Maker.  Business Insider, Dec 24, 2021.  Demands include better workplace conditions for US workers.

Cody Johnston and Katy Stoll, Unions and Strikes Are Good.  Some More News, Mar 30, 2022.   This 53 minute video surveys the strikes of 2020 - 2021 and their reasons:  unequal pay; poor working conditions.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Starbucks CEO Declares “Assault” As Union Organizer Fired.  Breaking Points, Apr 5, 2022.  Starbucks CEO Howard Shore says the quiet part out loud:  “Companies are being assaulted by the threat of unionization.”  Companies like Starbucks have made record profits.  And Shore’s first act as reinstated CEO?  Suspending stock buybacks to raise wages.  In other words, he’s trying to dampen workers’ enthusiasm for unionization by raising wages.  Shore gives away the game:  normally, if you exploit workers, you can pump up the stock and hand profits over to investors.  

Lucy Song, Capture of Asian American Politics.  Boston Review, Apr 7, 2022.  “By casting doubt on multiracial working-class solidarity, Jay Caspian Kang’s critique of professional identity politics fails on its own terms.”

Robin D. G. Kelley, Abolition Democracy’s Forgotten Founder.  Boston Review, Apr 19, 2022.  “While W. E. B. Du Bois praised an expanding penitentiary system, T. Thomas Fortune called for investment in education and a multiracial, working-class movement.”

Max Alvarez, How Bosses Steal Your Time, Control Your Life. Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Apr 22, 2022.

Kim Kelly, Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor. Atria / One Signal Publishers | Amazon page, Apr 26, 2022. “Freed Black women organizing for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate America’s civil rights movement. These are only some of the working-class heroes who propelled American labor’s relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law.” See also Eleanor S. Repley, Study Guide for Fight Like Hell. Independently Published | Amazon page, Apr 2022.

Amy Goodman, “The Wobblies”: Iconic Film on the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Is Rereleased for May Day. Democracy Now, Apr 29, 2022. “The film details the history of the Industrial Workers of the World — a radical union whose members are also known as Wobblies — and their inclusive fight to organize “unskilled” workers, secure fair wages and enshrine the eight-hour workday in the early 20th century before they were targeted and repressed by the FBI during World War I. It features interviews with former Wobblies still alive in the 1970s. Deborah Shaffer, who co-directed the film with Stewart Bird, says the IWW “was founded in 1905 out of necessity” because no existing unions represented so-called unskilled labor. “The workers had no representation at all, and they were being expected to work seven days a week, 12-hour days, no breaks, no meals, underpaid, overworked,” she says. “Conditions were terrible and intolerable.””

Paul Kingsnorth, How the Left Fell for Capitalism.  Unherd, Jul 5, 2022. 

Juliana Kaplan and Madison Hoff, We Were Wrong About the Great Resignation. Workers Are Still Powerless and the Looming Recession Will Make It Worse. Business Insider, Jul 17, 2022. 

CNBC, Why Americans Aren’t Paid Enough. CNBC, Jul 19, 2022.  Wage growth adjusted for inflation.  Considers another measure of inflation in which wage growth is statistically higher.  Possible solutions considered include:  PRO Act strengthening labor; strengthening position of labor in the gig economy; promote more remote work.

Ken Klippenstein and Jon Schwarz, Bank of America Memo, Revealed: “We Hope” Conditions for American Workers Will Get Worse. The Intercept, July 29, 2022.

CNBC, Why Starbucks, Apple And Google Are Unionizing Now For The First Time. CNBC, Aug 5, 2022. “First-ever unions have now formed at more than 200 Starbucks, an Apple store in Maryland, a Google Fiber contractor, REI, Trader Joe’s, Kickstarter, and a gaming division of Microsoft. Here’s why experts say it’s happening now, and why these progressive companies are fighting back against the movements.”

CNBC, Where Is The Worst State For U.S. Workers? CNBC, Aug 6, 2022. Including the right to organize. “Oxfam America ranked North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina as the worst states for workers in 2021. “Every year, the worst states to work are in the South, almost always. And in 2021, that was no different.” Democrats are more likely to pass the sorts of policies that Oxfam America tracks in its best states to work list such as higher minimum wages, pregnancy accommodations in the workplace and policies that protect the right to unionize. But the states with the best policies for workers, according to Oxfam America’s analysis, also tend to be the states with the highest cost of living. Oxfam America ranked Oregon, New York, Massachusetts and California as some of the best states for workers' rights, but CNBC’s 2022 Top States for Business Index found those states also have some of the highest cost of living in the country.”

Vox, The Fall (and Rise?) of Unions in the US.  Vox, Aug 9, 2022.  A 10.5 minute video which also compares the US to Canada, helpfully.  Union membership peaked in the 1950s.  Employers moved factories to the South to avoid union labor, hired anti-union consulting firms, and took Reagan’s firing of striking air traffic control workers as a model.

Beau of the Fifth Column, Let's Talk About Labor Day's Origins.... Beau of the Fifth Column, Sep 5, 2022.  

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, New CA Bill Will Revolutionize Fast Food Work.  Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Sep 6, 2022.  This is about sectoral unionization of labor.

Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave, Supply Chain Catastrophe Looms As Rail Workers Near Strike.  Rising | The Hill, Sep 14, 2022.  An 8 minute video segment.  Focuses on labor’s demands for more regularity and flexibility.  Maximilian Alvarez, Railway Companies Engage In ‘Corporate Terrorism’ Ahead of Strike.  Breaking Points, Sep 14, 2022.  A 30 minute video segment.  Corporate leaders have been undermining the rail system and its supply chain, imposing draconian policies on the fewer workers to squeeze out profits, pay dividends to investors, and buy back corporate stock.  Rail workers are planning a possible strike for Friday, Sep 16th which would have a massive economic impact on the whole nation.  Congress is considering shutting down the strike before it begins, which would be immoral and problematic.  The best short summary is Briahna Joy Gray, Why Does America Hate Workers? Corporate Greed Almost Shuts Down Rail System.  Rising | The Hill, Sep 15, 2022. 

Ana Swanson, U.S. Blocks Dominican Republic Sugar Imports, Citing Forced Labor.  New York Times, Nov 23, 2022.  “An import ban targets sugar from Central Romana Corporation, a behemoth whose sugar is sold under the Domino brand.”

Peter Zeihan, Biden's Pro-American Present for Europe.  Zeihan on Geopolitics, Dec 6, 2022.  President Biden’s Infrastructure Reduction Act is an attempt to gain favor with organized labor for the Democrats.  Europe is unhappy with this because Europe since WWII had near-duty-free access to the American market, and they did not have to grant reciprocal access to their own markets.  Meanwhile Europe had access to raw materials from China.  So Europe’s labor and manufacturing was subsidized for 75 years. 

Second Thought, Why Corporate America Hates Unions.  Second Thought, Dec 30, 2022.  Very informative 18 minute video.  

Richard Wolff, Economic Update: Surging US Labor Activism.  Democracy at Work, Jan 2, 2023.  A helpful update on recent labor events and movements.

AJ+, How Britain Used India To Replace Slave Labor.  AJ+, Jan 18, 2023.  “After abolishing slavery, Britain looked to India to replace the labor on its plantations. The British Empire has since gone to great lengths for history to forget how it created the world’s largest diaspora.”  In its colonies, Britain used indentured servants -- Indian and African -- to replace slaves.  The British shipped 3 million laborers from Kolkata, India, which contributes to 32 million Indians outside of India -- the world’s largest diaspora.  

NBC News, At Least 50 Children Found Cleaning Midwest Slaughterhouses.  NBC News, Jan 19, 2023.

Peter Zeihan, Deglobalization: There's No Stopping It Now.  Zeihan on Geopolitics, Feb 2, 2023.  

Lauren Stricken and Julia Ainsley, Federal Officials Say More Than 100 Children Worked in Dangerous Jobs for Slaughterhouse Cleaning Firm.  NBC News, Feb 17, 2023. Packers Sanitation Services Inc. paid $1.5 million in fines after the Labor Department found minors using chemicals to clean saws and equipment at 13 facilities in eight states.  See also Alex Wagner, Feds Bust Company Using Child Labor to Clean Meatpacking Plants.  Alex Wagner Tonight | MSNBC, Feb 17, 2023.  Wagner also juxtaposes this incident with legislative bills in GOP led states trying to loosen labor laws so that children age 16 could work in meat packing plants, and where the companies would not be legally liable if they got chemical burns or sickened.

More Perfect Union, Michigan Is On The Verge of Historic Action To Save Union Jobs.  More Perfect Union, Feb 22, 2023.  Michigan’s Republicans were very pro-corporate and passed so-called “right to work” laws.  Very good history.

Hannah Dreier, Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.  New York Times, Feb 25, 2023.  Hannah Dreier, Biden Administration Plans Crackdown on Migrant Child Labor.  New York Times, Feb 27, 2023.  See also interview with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, NYT Exposé Shows Migrants Kids in U.S. Are Forced into Brutal Jobs for Major Brands.  Democracy Now, Feb 28, 2023.  

Steven Greenhouse, ‘Old-School Union Busting’: How US Corporations Are Quashing the New Wave of Organizing.  The Guardian UK, Feb 26, 2023. 

Robert Reich, This One Thing Would Increase Wages By $300 Billion. Robert Reich, Mar 15, 2023. Re: non-compete agreements. It reflects a type of monopoly power.

Keri Leigh Merritt, Censorship & Education in the Antebellum South. The Institute for Common Power, May 18, 2023. An excellent 20 minute video. The antebellum South made lack of education an institution. The Freedman’s Bureau brought public education to the South. Elite white leaders opposed education and literacy, opposing both schools and churches and civil rights organizations like SNCC.

Noam Scheiber, Amazon Is Everywhere. That’s What Makes It So Vulnerable. New York Times, May 19, 2023. Amazon’s sort centers and shipping transportation system have choke points that are vulnerable to labor action. Includes historical examples of labor organizing around choke points. See further commentary and additional labor victories by Krystal Ball, Workers Make Amazon Pay with Choke Point Organizing. Breaking Points, May 24, 2023.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Susan Sarandon, SAG VP BLAST Greedy Studios.  Breaking Points, Jul 21, 2023. 

Lucy Dean Stockton, Teamsters Deliver A UPS Deal.  The Lever, Jul 29, 2023. 

Leeja Miller, Unions Will Save America.  Leeja Miller, Aug 2, 2023.  

Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, Biden Reboots New Deal Labor Rule To Increase Wages For Construction Workers.  The Majority Report, Aug 9, 2023.  Raises the question of what laws are actually on the books but not enforced.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Right Or Wrong? UPS Drivers Score 170k/Year Contract.  Breaking Points, Aug 14, 2023. 

Stephen Semler, Bidenomics Isn’t Working For Working People.  The Lever, Aug 15, 2023.  Important data on food insecurity, financial hardship, and government spending outlays on social welfare programs.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Autoworkers Demand 4 Day Workweek in Strike Threat.  Breaking Points, Aug 29, 2023.  Includes history of the 40 hour workweek, and an attempt in 1933 to legislate a 30 hour workweek.

David Doel, UAW President Slams Donald Trump After His Latest Announcement.  The Rational National, Sep 19, 2023. 

Olivia Olander, Nick Niedzwiadek, and Doug Palmer, Trump’s Labor Record Will Trail Him as He Wades Into UAW Strike.  Politico, Sep 21, 2023.  

Andrew Van Dam and Jeanne Whalen, Autoworkers Used to Be the Best-Paid Workers in the U.S. What happened?  Washington Post, Sep 22, 2023.  

Communications Workers of America, Trump’s Anti-Worker Record.  Communications Workers of America, last accessed Sep 23, 2023. 

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, UAW President Shreds Big 3 Lies On Car Prices.  Breaking Points, Sep 25, 2023.  Shawn Fain expanded the strike from auto assembly plants to parts distribution centers, which are profitable centers of the Big 3 for repair and maintenance of cars.  What about consumers?  Fain says automakers already raised prices by 35% even though worker wages only went up 6%.  

David Doel, Biden Makes History With UAW While Trump Applies Clown Makeup.  The Rational National, Sep 26, 2023.  Doel gives a great summary of Trump’s terrible record on labor.

Fred Wellman, Republicans Blow It and Attack American Workers on Live TV.  Meidas Touch, Sep 27, 2023.  Wellman strings together videos of GOP candidates criticizing labor and siding with capital:  Trump, Pence, Scott, Ramaswamy, and Haley.

CNBC, Why Tesla May Be The Big Winner Of The UAW Strikes.  CNBC, Sep 30, 2023.  Includes a history of Tesla’s labor practices.  It’s significant that the ratio of Musk’s salary to worker salary is 40,000x.

Jack Ewing, Nonunion Workers Are Playing a Big Role in the Autoworkers’ Strike.  New York Times, Oct 23, 2023.  “The three U.S. automakers say they are already at a disadvantage to nonunion rivals while labor leaders hope that big gains in negotiations will inspire workers in Southern states to unionize.”  Ewing highlights important stats on regional wage differences.

Nathaniel Meyersohn, Why Tesla Isn’t Unionized.  CNN, Oct 12, 2023.  “Workers have attempted to organize at Tesla at least three different times. But the company, led by Elon Musk, has been difficult for unions to break into because of weak protections for labor organizing in the United States; Tesla’s aggressive tactics; and Tesla’s strategy of granting factory workers stock options, a rarity in the auto industry.”

Elizabeth Bruenig, Shawn Fain’s Old-Time Religion.  The Atlantic, Oct 24, 2023.  “The president of the United Auto Workers is part of a tradition that was once far more visible in American public life: the Christian left.”

Type Ashton, Europe’s Secret to Saving American Labor Unions.  Type Ashton, Nov 5, 2023.  In Europe, labor unions bargain for sectoral wages (sectoral bargaining), not just for their own, or per company wages.  In Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Belgium, labor unions run the unemployment system.  

Thom Hartmann, How to Build an Empire?  Thom Hartmann, Nov 5, 2023.  “The UN called out Wal-Mart and Amazon for paying their employees so poorly that they’re forced to go on food stamps and other government programs. More likely, the availability of such programs aren’t lost on those companies, and they bake that into the business plan. Sounds like yet another subsidy for billionaires.”

More Perfect Union, What Nestle and Abbott Don’t Want You to Know.  More Perfect Union, Oct 14, 2023.  International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) bought DuPont’s nutrition unit.  Now they are stripping workers of rights.  “Black union workers are under siege in Memphis.  For decades, workers who make protein for Nestle made a fair living.  After a $26 billion takeover, a new owner wants to take away lunch breaks & destroy the union.  Workers won’t back down. They’ve been striking for 4 months.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, GM Humiliates Biden As UAW Announces Historic Organizing.  Breaking Points, Nov 30, 2023. 

Fred de Sam Lazaro, Doctors Unionize as Healthcare Services Are Consolidated Into Corporate Systems.  PBS News Hour, Jan 1, 2024. “As recently as the early 80s, about three of every four doctors in the U.S. worked for themselves, owning small clinics. Today, some 75 percent of physicians are employees of hospital systems or large corporate entities. Some worry the trend is leading to diminished quality of care and is one reason doctors at a large Midwestern health provider decided to unionize.”  The 500+ physician providers of Allina Health voted 2-1 in favor of unionizing.  Meanwhile, Allina Health hired the same anti-union law firm that Starbucks did.  The strategy is delay, delay, delay.

Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland, Why Union Workers Abandoned The Democratic Party | Lainey Newman. The Majority Report, Feb 12, 2024. Released Feb 18, 2024. Lainey Newman, research assistant at Harvard Law School, discusses her recent book Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party, co-authored with Theda Skocpol.

Ali Velshi, Inside Project 2025’s Plan to Weaken Unions and Lower Workers’ Wages. Velshi | MSNBC, Aug 24, 2024.

Dylan Wynward, 5,000 University of California Workers to File to Form New Union. Daily Bruin, Nov 8, 2024.